Morning Briefs and Outtakes for July 2, 2009

Great morning to all across the bloggersphere from the "cut and paste capital" of Los Angeles, CD 14.

And as a public service, please as you arrive late and leave early from your third and fourth floor confines, remember to show consideration for your fellow city employees who show their "green" commitment by riding to work, even if it was for only an photo op.

On the subject of "green commitment" LA Weekly's Patrick Range McDonald "goes yard" on the major eco/leftie democratic groups who principles of conserving our natural wonders have been co-oped by unions and left-wing, anti-business special interest groups.

So far, 2009 has not been a banner year for the environmental movement in Los Angeles. As the area’s mainstream enviros buddy up with self-described green politicians and deep-pocketed land speculators and unions in Los Angeles and Sacramento, who have seemingly joined the “sustainability” cause, an odd thing is happening: Environmentalists who should be at the top of their game are turning into servants for more powerful, better politically connected masters, and suffering a string of defeats to boot.

No surprise considering that some Sierra Club members want to build an "Discovery Center" on sensative habitat in Whittier Narrows and their LA County political director is the Director of Human Resources at DWP.

Eastsider LA blogger Jesus Sanchez has a "one on one" with CD 14 political newcomer Emanuel Pleitez , which they discuss his campaign for Congress and his political future.

Q. Have you decided that you want to run for public office again? If so, what would you be interested in?

A. I have not decided to run for public office again, but if I were a betting man, I'd bet that I will run again. Instead of the question being: what would you be interested in, the better question would be what would I be best prepared or qualified for? If I would run again, I wouldn't know right now what that office would be.

Emanuel, Think CD 14 in 2011.

As "Team 1600" departs City Hall, the LA Weekly's Paul Teetor chronicles Rocky's last days and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's outreach to new City Attorney Carmen Trutanich, with a predictable discarding of some "used up political capital".

While Trutanich got a classic Rocky welcome, the Weekly learned that Mayor Antonio Villaragosa, who showered his help on the losing candidate for city attorney, Jack Weiss, has gone out of his way to make Trutanich feel welcome. The reconciliation started with a surprise phone call the day after the election.

“The mayor called and said ‘I gotta admit I rode the wrong pony,’” Trutanich recalls. “I said ‘Everybody gets a mulligan.’”

The phone call soon turned from an exchange of mixed metaphors into something of a political love fest.

Jack Weiss now joins the "corral of ponies" that includes Martin Ludlow, Hillary Clinton, Prop B, Miguel Contreras, Gil Cedillo and countless of others.

The "battle royale" between the "Weekly of Record" Editor Jill Stewart and the "Old Gray Hag On Spring Street" crayola scribing columnist James Rainey, continues with Stewart latest salvo directed at Rainey.

It’s hard to imagine that Rainey wrote this attack without being bothered by a 2007 piece we at the Weekly published about him and his frequent use of blind sources while writing stories about his bosses at the L.A. Times. I assigned and edited that piece, by Luke Y. Thompson, whose report on Rainey used my approach: tough but factual, and filled with excellent sourcing.

Regarding the "Old Gray Hag On Spring Street", the supposed "paper of record" just discover that there was an controversy over the future of the Southwest Museum.

The likes of LA Conservancy's Linda Dishman and the rest of the preservation community might want to be aware that American Apparel is eyeing the historic Sears Tower on Soto and Olympic as a possible relocation site for their downtown operations.

One cannot fathom the thought of seeing the historic Sears logo replaces with an "Legalize LA" logo, plus not to mention the increase traffic from ICE investigators.

A government audit of one such company, Los Angeles-based American Apparel, showed that 1,600 of its roughly 10,000 employees may not be authorized to work and the employment status of 200 others could not be verified, according to Peter Schey, an attorney for the company. The fine, which could exceed $100,000, will become final in 30 days unless American Apparel requests a court hearing. If the company continues to employ people who have no work authorization, it could face criminal action.

.....and lastly, is Councilman Jose Huizar Deputy Chief of Staff Henry Casas still on public payroll, and why ??

Your thoughts.........